io8 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
among the mountains themselves. They love them, 
and are afraid to go down to the country that lies 
level below, because, they say, if you go out of the 
mountains you die. And truth to tell very likely 
you do. 
One of the pleasures of being in the North Carolina 
mountains is the presence of the simple and kindly 
people scattered everywhere over them, this great 
wilderness containing some two hundred thousand 
inhabitants, among whom may be found men and 
women who even yet have never ridden on a railway 
train, seen an automobile, or heard of an aeroplane. 
Shut up within the barriers of the mountains and 
isolated from contact with the rest of the world, the 
mountain whites, like people cast upon an island in 
mid-ocean, have developed customs and a dialect of 
their own. With their quaint speech and their primi- 
tive life they form perhaps the last link left in this 
country between the complex present and that sim- 
ple past when man satisfied his wants from the bosom 
of the earth, and was content to do so. All over the 
mountains is a network of paths and each path leads 
to the door of a friend. One need not fear to walk 
alone from village to village, from "settlement" to 
"settlement," to wander at will in this vast sweet 
forest, where every man, woman, and child is glad 
to see you and ready to help you get what you 
want. 
Thoroughly to enjoy the mountains, however, 
you must walk, or ride horseback. There are roads 
everywhere, but too often to drive over them as- 
